


In Pursuit of Lost Time

by Mysterious_Prophetess



Series: Bittersweet Memories [4]
Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Gen, Good Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Onmyoji Shimura Tenko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Mysterious_Prophetess
Summary: Time keeps slipping into the future. Bakugo learns more about onmyodo and Inko finally takes Tenko up on his offer of curse breaking.
Series: Bittersweet Memories [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100699
Comments: 2
Kudos: 107





	In Pursuit of Lost Time

Katsuki arrived at Tenko’s shop same as always. In his bag were the photo and the kaiju origami. He also saw an older guy in the shop. He blinked and did some counting on his fingers. He met Tenko five years ago, and he already had his old-man hair then but he was a kid. _Guess this is the shop’s owner?_ It was an older guy with fancy clothes, but he was like super old. Maybe his parent’s age?

“Who’re you?”

“Brat. This is Danjuro Tobita my foster dad and onmyoji sensei,” Tenko said.

“Thought you were already on your own and shit,” Katsuki said.

“How old do you think I am?” Tenko said.

“Old enough to be out of high school?”

“Tenko already graduated but he’s only fifteen,” Danjuro said.

“Then since you’re the older one, can you fix this!” Katsuki pulled out the picture.

“It’s off center. Just reframe it.”

“It wasn’t! There was a boy next to me and he’s gone and Geezer over there promised to help with finding out what happened!” Katsuki said. Danjuro gave the photo a once over and a thoughtful “hmm.”

“Afraid I can’t do much for it. My specialties lie in warding!” Danjuro said.

“What.”

“Every Onmyoji has different strengths and weaknesses. I could break curses and cast seals but mine lack the power someone like Tenko has. Of course, Tenko’s wards leave something to be desired and he can’t actually divine anything at all. I can at least do some limited divination by contrast,” Danjuro said.

“And your current student is the best diviner in two hundred years,” Tenko said in a bored tone.

“Manami is a sweet girl, and you know it.”

“She is but I don’t need you bringing that up every time you come here,” Tenko said.

“So, is this your shop or Geezer’s?”

“Tenko’s. It belong to his late grandfather, who was quite the generalist onmyoji before he passed away. Sadly, Tenko’s father had no time or patience for the supernatural and they equally had no patience for him. I simply kept the place going until Tenko graduated and took it over,” Danjuro said.

“And here we are. Might need Manami’s help with this case, so don’t get mad if I call her.”

“Why would I? It’s good my students are learning to get along. Unlike others whose students I won’t name,” Danjuro said with a sniff.

“And I thought elementary school shit was bad,” Katsuki said.

“Are you sure you want him as an apprentice?”Danjuro asked.

“Damn sure. Now please go, you’re cutting into Katsuki’s lesson time and it’s nearly time for high tea and you haven’t even made tea cakes,” Tenko said.

“You joke but you made a valid point. It was interesting meeting you, Katsuki.”

“It’s Bakugo to you, Fancy Pants!”

“Interesting to meet you, Bakugo.” With that Danjuro/Fancy Pants walked out of Tenko’s shop.

“I’d be lying if I said other onmyoji weren’t as weird as him,” Tenko said.

“Who was the guy he threw shade at?”

“Kyudai Garaki. Brilliant at onmyodo magic but kind of also a mad-scientist type but with onmyodo magic,” Tenko said.

“And his students hate each other’s guts?”

“Usually. Of course, they’re all as crazy as him. If onmyodo had a school of “black magic” it’d be him and his students. Hand over the photo, brat and let me see if I can do anything,” Tenko said. Katsuki handed it to Tenko who walked to his desk and set it down glass first, and then carefully pulled the picture from the frame and frowned at it.

“There’s some faint residual energy. It must had taken effort for the spell that erased him to get past your own subconscious protections on your own memories, even in paper form. Means you definitely have potential in unlocking the warding skill tree,” Tenko said.

“Brought this too. Deku made it,” Katsuki said as he handed over the origami kaiju.

“Is this Cthulu or something?”

“The hell is a Ca-thoo-loo?” Katsuki asked.

“Never mind. Yeah, if I just set these here, and I’ll be back in a moment with supplies and your first lesson, so pay attention, brat.”

————————— ——————

Tenko had a sheet of parchment, inks, and brushes with him when he came back. He cleared his desk and set everything up, with the kaiju and picture in the corner as he worked.

“First lesson. In the onmyodo arts I learned, there are seven elements. Light, Dark, Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, and Metal.

Light and Dark are balancing forces and the others do a sort of rock-paper-scissors thing. Earth beats Water. Water beats Fire. Fire beats Metal. Metal beats Wood. Wood beats Earth. Light and Dark can also be used to cause secondary reactions to each element, but you don’t need to know that right now. So, curse breaking involves figuring out what element the curse is anchored in and using its opposite to cancel it out. Thanks to Ms. Midoriya’s visit, I know which elements to cancel. That is Water and Light.Which together make air and all three make storms. Something powerful and associated with weather wove the curse into the peach. So. I need Darkness, Earth, and those together make Crystal—Danjuro never explained it so cool it, and those together make Stabilization,” Tenko said.

“Thought there was a bunch sayings for this crap,” Katsuki said.

“Where’d you hear that?”

“An anime,” Katsuki said.

“Yeah. If we were following the more traditional rules. Stuff evolved and the magic changed with it. That stuff’s still important. I’ll give you a packet with all the stuff you need to know written down on it. Also, you’re going to need to enroll in martial arts and learn caligraphy. If you write the wrong symbol at the wrong time, your spells can and will blow up in your face,” Tenko said as he carefully made strokes on the parchment and before long, it was ready. He set the photo and the kaiju in the center of five symbols.

“What’s with the fifth?”

“Extra insurance. It’s Fire, which strengthens Earth, but Water dampens it so it won’t cause this to go too out of control,” Tenko said.

“Now what?”

“Now, I recite the sutras Danjuro taught me to help me concentrate. Not everyone needs to do this, but I put most of my skill points in writing so I have to deal with needing a verbal component for concentration,” Tenko said. The chant sounded weird but Katsuki stopped paying attention to that the moment the paper began to glow. It flickered and flashed and soon all that was left were the kaiju and the photo. The photo that was back to normal! There was Deku with his wide-eyed freckled face beaming at the camera, just as muddied as Katsuki as he held up a fat frog. It was taken just last summer.

“You fixed it!” Katsuki said.

“You’re lucky you were so attached to it or I might have failed. Remember, boss level spirit did that?” Tenko said.

“Whatever!”

“No. Second lesson. Learn what you can and cannot do. Did you think my hair came out like this, brat?” Tenko said.

“Yeah,” Katsuki said as he flicked his ash-blond hair.

“It didn’t. Had a bad run in with a spirit that was out of my league. I was lucky this was all I got for my trouble,” Tenko said.

“So, if I don’t want shitty old man hair I need to not be a dumb ass?”

“Yeah. Also, Brat, you need to learn when to ask for help or when to go off and grind for a while,” Tenko said.

“Like whatever the hell took Deku away?”

“Yep. That’s end-game content level strong and you’re not even out of the tutorial yet, newb.”

“Then stop being a shitty teacher and help me get stronger,” Katsuki said.

“I can only point you in the right direction, brat. You’re the one who’s gotta take those steps.”

“Whatever. So, Martial Arts, memorize that stupid packet, learn caligraphy, anything else?”

“For a beginner? That’s all you need to worry about for now.”

——————————————— —————————————

In the two years since Katsuki had started his “apprenticeship” with Tenko, he’d learned a lot. Maybe some of it wasn’t what Tenko had _meant_ to teach Katsuki but he learned it. One of which was how Tenko actually BS’d his clients for divination.

———————

_He’d been sweeping the floors because he’d had a mishap with using Earth magic to try to stop a watery mess and ended up with basically sand everywhere. After writing down what had happened, Tenko handed him a broom and mimed sweeping. In walked some rich lady whose outfit cost more than his parents’ car._

_“Who is that_ child _in the corner?” The woman sneered._

_“My apprentice. Don’t worry, he’s still learning and won’t be handling such important clients as yourself,” Tenko said._

_It was only because Katsuki had known Tenko since he was_ **_five_ ** _that he caught the insults hidden in the niceties. Despite himself, Katsuki paid attention to Tenko working and was surprised at how good the advice sounded. The woman left and Katuski glared at Tenko before he could go back to his game._

_“I thought you’d told them BS. What the hell was that?”_

_“The only BS I feed them is that their advice comes from divining the stars. I don’t have the talent points for that shit, remember? Instead I research whatever it is they want advice on and make it sound like I used divination instead of my brain,” Tanko said._

_“That’s both brilliant and stupid,” Katsuki said._

_“Get used to it, as my apprentice you’re going to have to learn how to do this too. I can already tell you aren’t going to unlock that skill tree either,” Tenko said._

———————————— ————

After that, Katsuki was stuck learning a lot of general advice bull to feed to people as well as financial advice books and love advice. Tenko wasn’t fond of that area at all.

He’d heard Tenko send more than one person to find Manami for that. Manami was weird but fun. She was a couple years older than Katsuki and looked half-his-age. Honestly, she was one of the only Onmyoji outside of Tenko Bakugo could stand. Unlike the stuffed-shirt-clan. The “prestigious Iida Clan.” Tenko could barely stand to work with with the elder brother and the younger brother was so stiff and by-the-book Katsuki wanted to gag. Tenko and his more unorthodox onmyodo clashed with the strict traditionalists that were the Iidas enough that one had to be very desperate to call in Tenko and any of that group at the same time. Especially if Danjuro was in the mix. Katsuki once fantasized locking them all in a vault just to find out who’d murder whom first. His money was on Tenko poisoning ** _himself_** just to put himself out of his own misery.

Sounded suitably nihilistic to be Tenko in his darker moments.

——————— —————

“Ms. Midoriya finally agreed to a curse breaking session,” Tenko said one day after school.

“About damn time. Any reason why she decide now’s a good time to break a curse?” Katsuki said.

“She’s getting married and wants to do it without any regrets,” Tenko said.

“Right, the Hag mentioned something about Aunty meeting a new Mr. Right or some sort of crap,” Katsuki said.

Truth was he was both happy for her and mad she didn’t take the whole “you were freaking cursed” thing seriously until now just because some guy was in her life. Even if he’d met the man and he was nice and had a cool car and the Hag didn’t want to claw his eyes out like she had with Deku’s Dead-Beat Dad. Deku still didn’t deserve to be forgotten!

“Want me to help?”

“No. You’re too close to it and might mess up the spell,” Tenko said.

“Whatever.”

“Instead, you’ll be spending that day off studying the various yokai, spirits, and kami onmyoji might deal with. Especially sealing and curse-breakers like you and me, even if you also have some skill with warding,” Tenko said.

“I don’t have to go study with Fancy Pants, do I?”

“Only if you want to learn the really stupid complicated wards.”

“Does anyone need to know those?”

“Not really. I have copies of them and their spells here thanks to my dead gramps,” Tenko said.

“Then Fancy Pants can stuff it, Geezer!”

“Love you too, Brat.”

——————————— ——————

As Inko Midoriya entered his shop, Tenko was very reluctant to break the curse. It was his calling as an onmyoji to do so but he’d seen too much to know that it’s not simply: see curse, break it. He’d learned that the hard way. Tenko gave himself a mental slap. Focus.

“Thanks for coming in Ms. Midoriya,” Tenko said politely. He was in his full onmyoji uniform, which was a black round collared robe, black hat, black boots, and hakama that tied at the ankles. Under the robe he wore a plain white under-layer kimono. Honestly, he hated it but it made him focus more so when shit got nuts, he put the stupid outfit on. Plus, it drove Danjuro crazy when he wore it—since onmyoji don’t need to dress like they’re straight out of the Ming dynasty if they don’t want to and can wear modern styles. Win-win. He knew Katsuki wasn’t going to go for it, but he’d torture the little shit for as long as possible until he revealed it was optional.

“You don’t have to do this. Sometimes it’s better to let things be if they’re not harming you,” Tenko said.

“I know it’d be easier for me to leave it but…I remembered something my aunt used to tell me when I was little. If you don’t have the bitter, the sweet is bland,” Inko said.

“Aunt sounds like a wise person,” Tenko said.

“She was,” Inko said.

“This is going to feel weird and we might get a reaction like last time, but it won’t be as bad since the spell is older, more faded,” Tenko said as he went about placing the talismans and ofuda about the room. To both contain the energies and empower his magic. He gestured for a cushion in the center of the main shop floor. Inko quickly took a seat, seiza no less which left Tenko to steel his nerves and begin the ritual.

———————— —————————————

At first, Inko thought the young fortuneteller had scammed her, like Mitsuki said he would but then she noticed a picture handing on the wall above a desk shoved in the corner and covered in scrolls and other clutter that reminded her of a boy’s desk. The one child was a very muddied Katsuki. She remembered how mad she and Mitsuki had been. The mud was going to take forever to get out of their clothes. _Wait, their clothes_. That’s when her eyes alighted on the other boy as he held a frog in his hands, beaming like the sun. It was like a flood gate opened once she saw him. _Izuku! My Izuku, how could I forget him!_

She was wracked with sobs as she realized for the last two years, she’d been made to forget her little boy. Her light. _Her life!_ How could she have been so terrible.

“It’s not your fault, Ms. Midorriya. You were cursed.” She saw a handkerchief was offered to her. She took it and it was soaked in seconds.

“What will I do? I can’t marry Buri without him knowing I have a son out there!” Inko sobbed.

“Except, as far as the world is concerned, he doesn’t exist.”

“But-but he did! I know he did. That picture says he did! I need to prove he did to make it up to him!” Inko wailed. _I’m so sorry, Izuku. Your mother will do better._

“Ms. Midoriya. I’m still looking into what happened to Izuku, but you can’t put your life on hold until I do. Would he want that? Really?” Would he? He’d always needed her so much but…would he want her to spend every waking minute chasing his shadow? Inko knew the answer without too much thought.

“No. He’d-He’d want me to be happy. Promise me. You’ll find out who did this?” Inko asked.

“Of course. Now I need to ask you a really hard question. Who handed you that peach?”

——————————— ————————————

Tenko was not expecting the answer he got.

“I..I can’t be sure. They were young. A boy but he didn’t look quite right. He was also…crying,” Inko said.

“Focus. What else can you remember?”

“I…thought he was Izuku,” Inko said.

“Might have been a glamour. Also seems like whoever gave you the peach and the commands to forget didn’t really want to do it if they were crying,” Tenko said.

“Then why do it?”

“That’s something I’ll find out too,” Tenko vowed.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Katsuki swears by your katsudon. Make a large batch of that for me and the brat to split and I’ll call it even,” Tenko said.

“It was Izuku’s favorite,” Inko said.

“You can—.”

“No. I need to do this. Thank you, Mr. Shimura.”

“It’s no problem, Ms. Midoriya. It’s literally my job.”

————————————— —————————

Inko dropped off the oversized bento the next afternoon just as Katsuki arrived.

“I’m so sorry you had to remember alone for all this time,” Inko said with a bow.

“I’m just sorry you were mind wiped,” Katuski said.

“I’ll try to convince Mitsuki that you’re not throwing your life away with a con artist,” Inko said.

“Nah. You’d be better off trying to tell morning not to come.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will apologize now.  
> This is not proper onmyodo.  
> This is my "read a few things online, watched anime with it in it, fantasy embellished" onmyodo.  
> Mostly influenced by a chapter of _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ where that came up and _Nura no Mago_ 's depictions with some of my own twists to it.  
> I do not claim to be an expert in this, nor will I ever claim to be an expert with this. I do not claim that what I've written represents onmyodo or what onmyoji do at all.
> 
> I also borrowed a little bit from Chiyaha's route from _Persona 5/Royal._
> 
> Secondly, with how my tangent is going I've now made the Iida clan human and onmyoji too, which is another deviation from the initial AU set up for Class 1-A and the superheroes.  
> This was because I couldn't picture Iida or his brother as any sort of spirits but they looked right at home dressed like Abe no Seimei.  
> So, now Tenya is an onmyoji too. Same as Katsuki.  
> I actually now have a plan for what I want to do and how I'll reunite Izuku with the human world he's left behind within my tangent here.
> 
> Oh one final note:  
> Tenko charges his "divination" customers through the nose but for the actual onmyoji jobs, he takes a more flexible approach, which is why for Inko's curse breaking he only asked for food.  
> Since most of the customers who come to him for their 'divination' reports tend to be rich people, Tenko has no remorse for this at all.  
> Plus, gaming's an expensive hobby, speaking from first hand experience.


End file.
